How can Experiential Design Heal the Rift between Humanity and Nature?
Fortune Brainstorm Design 2024: Biomimicry in Architecture and Engineering
Fortune’s 2024 Brainstorm Design brought together a diverse group of visionaries for one shared objective: to explore how immersive environments and experiential design reshape the landscape across diverse sectors.
In a world where businesses compete fiercely for the most precious resource—attention—immersive design is emerging as a powerful tool to captivate, connect, and inspire. This year’s event, themed “Experiments in experience,” challenged us to transcend mere aesthetics and engagement and delve into transformative experiences.
In conversation with Nicholas Gordan at FORTUNE, Jamie Miller, Global Director of Biomimicry at B+H, shared how biomimicry can guide us in creating solutions to solve the planet’s most “wicked problems.” By observing ecosystems that have thrived over millennia, we can uncover solutions that are not only innovative but also efficient and sustainable.
Nature, with its 3.8-billion-year history of evolution, offers a wealth of answers to many of the challenges we face today. Examples range from natural cooling systems inspired by termite mounds to wind turbines made more efficient by mimicking the shape of whale fins.
The core philosophy of biomimicry encourages us to think beyond mere sustainability. It advocates for regenerative practices that actively restore and replenish the very ecosystems we depend on.
“Experiential design isn’t just about creating memorable moments—it’s about reconnecting us to what’s already within us. Biomimicry shows us that nature has been designing for billions of years, offering solutions that foster connection, resilience, and abundance.
At its best, experiential design can be an act of reconciliation: with ourselves, with each other, and with the ecosystems that sustain us. By letting nature guide us, we move beyond simply mimicking its patterns and instead co-create with its wisdom.”